Bertha was a
tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...
built specifically for the
Washington State Department of Transportation
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...
's (WSDOT)
Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel
The State Route 99 tunnel, also known as the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel, is a bored highway tunnel in the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. The , double-decker tunnel carries a section of State Route 99 (SR 99) und ...
project in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
,
Washington, United States. It was made by
Hitachi Zosen Sakai Works in
Osaka, Japan
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third-most populous city in Japan, following the special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a populatio ...
, and the machine's assembly was completed in Seattle in June 2013. Tunnel boring began on July 30, 2013, with the machine originally scheduled to complete the tunnel in December 2015.
On December 6, 2013, work was halted approximately into the planned route because of an unexpected impediment. It was thought that several cutting blades were damaged by striking a steel pipe that had been used to measure
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
in 2002 around the Alaskan Way Viaduct. However, subsequent investigation revealed that portions of the main bearing seal system were damaged, causing the bearing to overheat during operation.
Over the next two years, a recovery pit was dug from the surface in order to access and lift the machine's cutterhead for repair and partial replacement in 2015.
Bertha resumed tunnel boring on December 22, 2015, but was stopped in early January 2016 after a tethered barge in
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s ...
damaged nearby piers and a
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...
opened near the project site. Governor
Jay Inslee
Jay Robert Inslee ( ; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician and lawyer who served from 2013 to 2025 as the 23rd governor of Washington. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1999 to 2012 as a ...
halted all work on the tunnel on January 14, 2016, citing concern over public safety after the sinkhole incident. Digging briefly resumed on February 23, but was halted again for maintenance and inspections before resuming full operations on April 29.
In December 2015, WSDOT had estimated that the tunnel would be completed and open to traffic in early 2018.
The estimate was revised in July 2016 to open in early 2019 with an estimated $223 million in cost overruns stemming from the two-year delay.
Tunnel boring was completed on April 4, 2017, with Bertha's cutterhead breaking through into a disassembly vault at the tunnel's north portal in South Lake Union.
The final disassembled pieces of the boring machine were removed in August 2017, and the finished tunnel opened to traffic on February 4, 2019. Bertha's components were not reusable and were scrapped.
Name
The name Bertha, after Seattle's first female mayor,
Bertha Knight Landes, was chosen by a panel (that included the Governor and Transportation Secretary) from 150 submissions from kindergarten through 12th graders, who were asked to submit female names with Washington state heritage. The winning entry, which was submitted by two elementary schools in
Poulsbo
Poulsbo ( ) is a city on Liberty Bay in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is the smallest of the four cities in Kitsap County. The population was 11,970 at the 2020 census and an estimated 10,927 in 2018.
The Suquamish people hav ...
and
Hoquiam, was selected in December 2012.
Some media have also referred to the machine as "Big Bertha".
In March 2016, regional transit agency
Sound Transit
Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It manages the Link light rail system in Se ...
decided to drop names for its own
tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...
s, used for smaller
light rail
Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
tunnels, citing unwanted association and confusion with Bertha, especially the machine "Brenda" used on the
Northgate Link Extension and
University Link Tunnel.
Design and assembly
Bertha was designed and manufactured by
Hitachi Zosen Sakai Works of Osaka, Japan, and was the world's largest
earth pressure balance tunnel boring machine, at a cutterhead diameter of across. The machine was long and weighed .
The machine itself cost $80 million and was owned by Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP), the project contractors.
STP is a joint venture of New York-based
Dragados USA, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Dragados, S.A., the construction division of
ACS Group
ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. () is a Spanish company dedicated to civil engineering, construction, all types of services and telecommunications. It is one of the leading construction companies in the world, with projects ...
of
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
; and
Tutor Perini Corporation
Tutor Perini Corporation (formerly Perini Corporation) is one of the largest general contractors in the United States as a result of the merger of Perini Corporation and Tutor-Saliba Corporation in 2008. At the end of 2013, it reported annual r ...
, based in Sylmar, California.
Hitachi Zosen held a completion ceremony for the machine, performed at the same time as the naming ceremony, in Osaka, Japan, on December 20, 2012. Test assembly and shakedown on Bertha in Japan indicated issues with the main-drive unit and tolerances that required repairs in February 2013.
Bertha was shipped to the
Port of Seattle
The Port of Seattle is a public agency that is in King County, Washington. It oversees the seaport of Seattle as well as Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. With a portfolio of properties ranging from parks and waterfront real estate, to ...
in 41 sections, arriving on April 2, 2013.
Bertha had a special pre-programmed melody that played for workers inside the machine and those monitoring the tunnel-borer.
Excavation
Dedication and first section
The machine began excavation of the route on July 30, 2013, with completion of the bore scheduled in 14 months' time and the tunnel opening to traffic in December 2015.
Over 5,000 members of the public, along with
Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
Jay Inslee
Jay Robert Inslee ( ; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician and lawyer who served from 2013 to 2025 as the 23rd governor of Washington. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1999 to 2012 as a ...
, were present for the machine's dedication a week prior to the beginning of excavation.
Damage to cutterhead and two-year delay
By December 6, 2013, Bertha had tunneled , or 11%, of the total length of the tunnel, stopping about below ground between South Jackson Street and South Main Street. The machine's progress was halted on that day by an unexpected impediment. After a month's investigation, WSDOT announced that the machine's cutting blades had encountered an , steel pipe, one of several
well casings left over from a previous 2002 drilling project that had assessed
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
conditions and soil stability in the area in case of another earthquake, such as the
2001 Nisqually earthquake, which led to a need for the replacing of the
Alaskan Way Viaduct
The Alaskan Way Viaduct ("the viaduct" for short) was an elevated freeway in Seattle, Washington, United States, that carried a section of Washington State Route 99, State Route 99 (SR 99). The double-decked freeway ran north–south along the ...
in the first place. Because the machine cannot cut through metal, the pipe damaged several of Bertha's cutting blades, necessitating blade replacement before the machine could proceed. The pipes' locations were known to WSDOT and the agency thought they had been removed, while STP admitted in a 2019 lawsuit that they had knowledge of the pipe prior to excavation.
In early February 2014, as Bertha was being prepared to resume operation, workers discovered it was overheating and that a damaged main bearings seal needed to be replaced. Multiple options were discussed to fix the problem, but Bertha was expected to be out of commission until March 2015. In December 2014, workers began digging a pit in order to lift Bertha's front end up to street level for repairs, but were delayed when groundwater pumping caused visible damage to nearby South King Street and some of its neighboring buildings. The front end of the machine, including the damaged cutter head, was successfully lifted onto the surface on the morning of March 31, 2015. STP estimated that fixing Bertha would delay the opening of the new tunnel by an additional nine months to August 2017, which was later extended to March 2018 after additional damage was discovered in June 2015.
On May 18, 2015, WSDOT reported to the
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-larg ...
that the damage to the bearing and seals was worse than had been previously reported. Further inspection after the cutting head was removed and disassembled showed damage to the cutter head drive gears, so a new estimate of the repair time and cost was prepared.
The front end of the machine was lowered back into the access pit for reassembly in a four-lift process beginning with the repaired cutter drive on August 24, 2015.
In June 2015, STP sued to force insurers to payout on the $85 million insurance policy to cover repairs needed after Bertha's cutting teeth were damaged in a collision with a steel pipe in December 2013. In August 2015, a consortium of eight insurers filed a lawsuit against STP in order to avoid a $143 million payout to cover the cost of repairs to the boring machine. The insurers claimed that the tunnel-boring machine's capabilities were inadequate for the project and should be excluded.
It is unclear what triggered the damage to Bertha's main bearing. Problems with the seal system appear to date back to the machine's initial testing in Japan, when the seal assembly was damaged and required repairs. However, Hitachi Zosen general manager Soichi Takaura later stated that "there was nothing wrong with the seals in the original machine", noting that Bertha appeared to function properly before striking the well casing. WSDOT disputed this, and stated that the well casing was not responsible.
Resumption of digging and subsequent activities
On December 22, 2015 at 12:30 a.m., the machine resumed digging through sand poured into the recovery pit. By January 4, Bertha had traveled of its planned route from
SoDo
Sodo () or officially Wolaita Sodo (, ) is a city in south Ethiopia. The city is a political and administrative center of the Wolaita Zone and South Ethiopia Regional State. It has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between abov ...
to
South Lake Union.
On January 6, 2016, Bertha broke through the concrete access vault and began digging through normal soil. Digging was halted once again on January 12, 2016, after a
barge
A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...
carrying excavated dirt tipped over in
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s ...
, spilling its load and damaging a dock at the
Port of Seattle
The Port of Seattle is a public agency that is in King County, Washington. It oversees the seaport of Seattle as well as Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. With a portfolio of properties ranging from parks and waterfront real estate, to ...
's Terminal 46. The same day, a
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...
formed within the tunnel's work zone approximately north of the access pit; the hole was filled with of concrete by contractors the following day and was not expected by WSDOT to delay the resumption of digging later in the week.
On January 14, 2016, Governor Jay Inslee ordered drilling on the tunnel to stop, invoking a contract clause in the tunnel agreement that allowed the state to suspend work based on unsafe conditions for project personnel or the general public. Before excavation of the tunnel could resume, WSDOT requested that STP complete and deliver an analysis of what caused the January 12 sinkhole and what modifications to tunneling operations could be made to prevent further ground-level problems.
Digging resumed on February 23, after a WSDOT review determined that new soil monitoring practices were sufficient, allowing the machine conditional permission to bore through of material and finish the initial testing phase of the machine. By March 14, Bertha had finished its bore to a "safe haven" located ahead of the Alaskan Way Viaduct; allowing WSDOT and STP to prepare for a two-week closure of the viaduct in late April as the machine passed under the vulnerable structure while closely monitored. Following a month of maintenance and inspections, Bertha resumed tunneling on Friday, April 29, 2016,
and crossed under the closed viaduct in an 11-day closure in early May that ended earlier than scheduled.
In June 2016, the tunnel reached its lowest point, under
Madison Street in downtown. A maintenance stop from June 23 to July 18 was conducted under Spring Street, replacing 33 of the cutterhead's teeth.
By September 30, 2016, Bertha had tunneled , surpassing the halfway mark of the planned distance. the tunnel length reached 70% completion.
Tunnel boring was completed on April 4, 2017,
and the finished tunnel opened to traffic on February 4, 2019. Practically none of Bertha's components were reusable, and most of its steel was melted and recycled.
The final, disassembled pieces of Bertha were removed from the tunnel portal in August 2017.
Zone advancement
Bertha's digging route was divided into 10 zones, representing different types of soil or progress under city landmarks.
Controversy
The two-year stoppage of Bertha has been criticized as an example of a political
boondoggle by opponents.
In January 2015, two
Republican state senators introduced a
bill in the
Washington State Legislature
The Washington State Legislature is the state legislature of the State of Washington. It is a bicameral body, composed of the lower Washington House of Representatives, composed of 98 representatives, and the upper Washington State Senate, w ...
to kill the project, citing Bertha and its delay in particular. The bill was never heard in the state senate and failed to pass the Senate Transportation Committee.
See also
*
Beck tunnel boring machine – former world's largest tunnel boring machine, prior to Bertha
*
Tuen Mun–Chek Lap Kok TBM – current world's largest, succeeding Bertha
References
External links
The World's Largest EPB Shield Tunneling Machine*{{Twitter
SR 99 tunneling machine - Berthaby
WSDOT
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...
on
Flickr
Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...
Overviewfrom
HistoryLink
HistoryLink is an online encyclopedia of Washington (state), Washington state history. The site has more than 8,100 entries and attracts 23,000 weekly visitors. It has 500 biographies and more than 14,000 images.
The non-profit historical organi ...
Bertha stoppage and milestone chronologyfrom Tunnel Talk
Tunnel boring machines
Transportation in Seattle